


How I watch her so sadly

by Justausernameonline



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: F/F, On Hiatus, Other implied ships - Freeform, all my headcanons from 2017 apply to this too yuop, when i say off the cuff i really mean it little change to what comes out
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 04:01:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15134672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justausernameonline/pseuds/Justausernameonline
Summary: Trimberly Week '18 Prompts off the cuff.





	How I watch her so sadly

Trini trudged downstairs of the lecture room to take the syllabus the professor was knee-deep into, saying her thanks as she tried to quiet her steps.  If she hadn't dared to look up, she would've missed Billy's power-waving several rows up at the center section.  She gave him a tight smile and went, strictly avoiding brushing against her classmates to reach the reserved seat.  

"You're twelve minutes late," Billy noted.

"I am," Trini replied as she took out a pencil.  "How's the teacher on that?"

"He said he'll lock it after twenty minutes, no late-comers." From the frown-y face drawn next to his notes, verbatim, he didn't seem pleased either. The commute, the campus -- she could make it work.  Consistency was the prick, regarding her status as the eldest and the sole(?) lesbian cousin.  That, and distancing herself from high school memories with another attitude.  Her schedule was fool-proof, but she'd seen larger semblances of control collapse.  Her defense? It was laminated.  

She pored over her schedule written and rewritten and rewritten on scrap paper alongside a sketch of the campus, making notes on the syllabus to somewhat keep her nerves at bay.  Too many times had she believed her memory was enough, and with her parents expecting her to do well, her mother especially breathing down her neck on this, she had to figure out her pace within the first week or watch herself wipe-out.  Convincing them to allow her to major in Art was easier if she did well on her midterms and first semester period.  Her portfolio had helped her, and she had honest pride with some of it; imagine her changing course and putting it away for storage.

With Billy beside her, the urge to pull at her hair came less prominently.  She listened to him writing, smooth graphite across paper among the laptop keyboards.  "Was Zack any luckier heading to his first class?" She whispered as the professor started up the computer.  They could have done it at the beginning of their two-hour class, but she disliked work anyway on the first day.  She shut her eyes, the call to bed as clear as a siren song.  She resisted fiddling with her phone and bag, but only barely.  

"Yeah," Billy said when he got the chance, "he sent me a few photos before and after."

"Can I see?"

He ducked his head so fast, thumb stroking his chin.  

"Are you okay?"

He cleared his throat.  The professor by then had their slides up, the first an overview of Urban Studies: Poverty and Affluence.

"They're..."

Something ceramic smashed from downstairs, sounding across the lecture room and over him.  The professor's reaction more so.  Trini stood and sat quickly.  She mentally kicked herself, but there were other students already helping out, as were other students even more late than her shuffling in.  She barely glanced as the seat beside her was taken with a metallic clang, caught up in her worry, almost reaching for Billy.  "They're...?"

"They're nudes, Trini," he whispered.

"What?"

"Trini, Zack sent me nudes." 

"Nice," a dude a seat behind them.  She didn't dare check. 

"Zack? Sent you nudes? Zachary Taylor?" Trini was mature.  She just had vivid imagery and disliked how it cursed her like today.  "Our Zack?"

"Yes," Billy said shyly, and left it at that.  

"Zack's a bit of a butt, but he's a keeper."

Billy ducked his head again, smiling. 

Trini was ready to tease him a little more, when the person next to her tapped her shoulder.

"Hey," greeted a girl her age.  They gave her a smile that could part tides and raise valleys.  They sent her quaking in her sensible flannel.  She nodded.  She quaked even more, struck by fear she was sweating from every pore in her body and that they saw it all. 

"Hi there," she said, her voice more gravelly than intended.  "Did you just come in?"

"Yeah, I'm getting the syllabus later.  I couldn't help noticing, you're having English with Azad next?" The girl gestured to Trini's schedule before she could reply.

"...You too?" Trini asked, sneaking a glance at Billy.  As if he'd sensed it, he paused his notes to give her a thumbs up.  She stared at the schedule and then at her.

The girl raised her hands.  "Call me obnoxious, but I really like your handwriting.  I'm Kimberly."

"Trini." She shot the peace sign reflexively.  "It's nice to meet you.  I'd like to talk more, but," she nodded at slide ten and the professor fielding questions, "I don't want to miss out on what they're saying.  Can I.. call you Kim?"

"Yeah, sure." She gave that stunning smile again.  She looked like was to say more, but a guitar ringtone stopped her.  

 _I like my girls just like I like my honey,_ Kehlani soothed as Trini slumped into her seat, away from Kimberly's phone on their desk, heart swooping within her chest as Kimberly caught the call.  She was a different shade while speaking indistinctly to the caller.  Shooting an apologetic look down the lecture room and at Trini and Billy, she scooped up her bag and jogged up the steps, slipping through the doors.

Trini turned back to her notes with a sigh.  Although she hadn't done anything, everything she had done at least in her eyes were wrong. 

She continued with her notes, avoiding her phone as to accelerate time, suspending her mind in the stars, so to speak.  She spent some effort on Kimberly's eyes on the margins of her notebook.  She was going to see her again, obviously.  Unless she was called off-campus.  Either way, she had the articles and assignment of the week to show her in English if she asked.

"Trini!" Billy tapped her arm as the professor shut off the projector and their classmates left in droves.  She looked back at him.  He held up a thermos.  "Is this yours?"

"No? I don't drink coffee."

"You don't?" There was a terror in his tone she didn't understand.  "In this reality?"

She shook her head and took it gently.  "I think we know who this belongs to." She pinched her nose.  "I'm going to get an extra syllabus -- oh, did you have lunch yet? I could pay for us both."

Billy waved her offer off. "It's fine, I had mine before class.  I'm going to ask the professor a few questions though! I'll text you."

"I see.  Bye, Billy." She started upstairs, turning the still-warm thermos in her hands.  Was she waiting behind those doors or long gone? If she had been lying, why waste time with her? 

She couldn't have been.  They'd reached out, the call the only thing to bring her out of class. 

Trini did not want to entertain those thoughts for too long.  "Give it to her at class or if you see her," she enunciated under her breath, "get through today." She checked the cap of the thermos before putting it inside her bag.  She held onto that well of emotion Kim had drawn out from her; it was the first day of college, and she needed her all to withstand the first week.  A new friend, a member, a confidante, a new loved one.  Any kind.  

**Author's Note:**

> idk much about baseball but trying to raise my batting/completed fanfic average w00t! let me know what you think


End file.
